I. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to data processing and Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) of Computer Systems; including those for common personal computers, laptop computers, personal data assistants, advanced wireless communications devices having embedded computational applications, “thin” client front end systems (relying on server based CPU engines), distributed computing systems, and the like. The invention also relates to instant messaging, rich messaging, widgets, personalization and customization.
II. Background Information
Instant messaging is a popular communication tool that enables two or more users to exchange messages via a network during an instant messaging session. When two users are online at the same time, for instance, instant messages may be exchanged in real time between the two users. Thus, the instant messages may be utilized to support a text conversation between the two users in a manner that mimics how the two users would participate in a typical spoken conversation. To enhance the richness of the messaging environment, technologies have been developed to allow users to express their emotions as emoticons during text conversations. Published Application No. US20050156873A1 describes a system for allowing the creation of custom emoticons, and describes the transmission mechanism within instant messaging applications. Published Application No. U.S. Pat. No. 7,091,976 discloses technology that describes the support of animation entities in more general messaging environment settings.
As an invention created independent of messaging, widgets are invented to provide easy access to frequently used functions and information. Typical widgets include news aggregators, clocks, calculators, calendars, desktop notes and weather forecasts. These widgets usually appear on a user's computer desktop to provide easy access to the specific applications. In recent years, as the popularity of social networks has increased, a new class of widgets has developed. These widgets allow individuals to share with their friends and other Internet users interesting web clips, pictures, or other things that relate to the individual. For example, these widgets may process raw contents to provide certain visual effects and they are usually embedded within web pages to be shared with the page viewers. Typically, different authoring environments are required for creating and customizing the various widgets of interests. Published Application No. US20060277481A1 describes technology relating to clipping customized web content. Meanwhile, there are also tools that help developers create widgets using basic raw materials (e.g. HTML, CSS, etc). Published Application No. US20060005207A1 describes technology relating to providing a unified authoring environment for developers to create widgets of consistent visual appearances based on such raw materials. Published Application No. US20060015818A1 discloses technology that describes a dashboard framework for managing and interacting with widgets. In addition, Published Application No. US20070266093A1 describes technology where widgets are responsible for managing workflows. Such so-called workflow widgets may further be embedded in a communication system where the widgets maybe distributed or updated by multiple users. Such usage of widgets further establishes the role of widgets in processes that involve multiple users.
There is a need for a system and method that brings together instant message and widgets whereby the widgets are customized and embedded within the instant messages. In such a system where widgets are embedded within instant messages, there is a need for a framework where widgets can be treated like emoticons. However, these widgets need to be different from conventional emoticons, which are merely graphical animation sequences. Widgets need to be capable of offering useful functions and information to the message recipient. While traditional widgets such as those described in Published Application No. US20070266093A1 are created to manage formal workflows, there is a need for widgets that are operatively configured to help users express themselves in casual conversations. There is a need for a system and method whereby users may easily select, embed and easily customize widgets according to the conversation context of the instant message.